Greater New Orleans

Harry Cahill and Newell Normand, chairman of West Jefferson Medical Center and East Jefferson General Hospital, respectively, confer with one another on Sept. 9, 2013 after the boards of the two hospitals failed to agree on a lessee (Ben Myers, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune).

Jefferson Parish Council
Chairman Chris Roberts confirmed Monday night that a council vote scheduled Thursday
to select a lessee for the parish's two public hospitals has been canceled.
Roberts stated in a text message that Inspector General David McClintock plans to release a report Wednesday on the hospital lease issue and that council members would not have
time to digest it before voting. It was not immediately clear whether the vote had been
rescheduled.

The cancellation came about seven hours after Roberts
and fellow Councilman-at-Large Elton Lagasse publicly endorsed Louisiana
Children's Medical Center ahead of Ochsner Health System and the HCA
conglomerate to lease East Jefferson General Hospital and West Jefferson Medical Center. Meanwhile, three other council members appealed for more time.

McClintock's report comes as surprise. He has previously
stated that he intended to become more actively involved in monitoring the lease deal only after the council selected an operator for detailed lease negotiations.

Roberts and Lagasse
issued their statement backing Children's minutes after the governing boards of
West Jefferson Medical Center and East Jefferson General Hospital failed again to
agree on a 30-year lease operator. Children's received 11 votes of support from
the hospitals' 20-member joint board, narrowly missed the 12-vote threshold
required in the board's bylaws for an official recommendation. One board member
abstained and another, representing East Jefferson, was not present.

The latest developments
came amid a public campaign for support by HCA, the Nashville-Tenn.-based corporation that
runs 162 hospitals. HCA has the backing of most East Jefferson General board
members, while Children's has the unanimous support of the West Jefferson
Medical Center board.

Roberts agreed last week to
delay Thursday's planned vote if a majority of the seven-member council wanted
it postponed. He polled his colleagues Friday and said in a text that afternoon
that most members were prepared to vote.

He surveyed the council after
members Cynthia Lee-Sheng and Ben Zahn, whose districts are entirely on the
east bank, pleaded for more time. Lee-Sheng, in an email to Roberts, said "we
are working in a very fluid environment," and expressed doubt the council would
have all the information it needed to vote Thursday. Zahn, citing "turmoil,
confusion, conflicting information," said he wanted more time to "sort through
what is and isn't fact."

A day earlier, the Jefferson Chamber of Commerce called for "some
sort of independent recommendation" and a delay in the council vote. Last
spring, the chamber supported a change in state law to deprive the public of a
vote on leasing the hospitals, leaving both the lease decision and the
selection of a leasee in the hands of the Parish Council. At the time, the
chamber asked "in the spirit that the discussion would be all encompassing" that
officials "would have all information necessary to make the right decision and
then defend that position for three decades."

Roberts and Lagasse, in
their written endorsement of Children's, said they had arrived at their
decision after "careful consideration."

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"LCMC
is a local institution that understands the importance of making decisions
based on what it right for the patient," they wrote. "They are a non-profit
entity that does not answer to investors (but) rather (to) the community in
which they serve."

Children's runs a
58-year-old pediatric hospital in New Orleans. In 2009, it took over Touro
Infirmary in New Orleans, and in June it assumed operation of LSU Interim Hospital
in New Orleans. It has an agreement with the state to run University Medical
Center when that complex opens in 2015.

West Jefferson Chairman Harry
"Chip" Cahill and East Jefferson Chairman Newell Normand, acknowledged after
the joint board's vote Monday that their members remain split.

Cahill said the way
Children's and other community hospitals performed after Hurricane Katrina
"stuck with me." "I know the people of the West Bank love West
Jefferson," Cahill said. "I see it staying the West Jefferson it is with
Children's."

Normand cited inherent advantages to
joining a shareholder-funded system such as HCA, as opposed to non-profits such
as Children's and Ochsner. "You are using other peoples' capital, as opposed to
a financial institution that is looking for a guaranteed return on their money
as it relates to interest. That interest carry can be very burdensome," Normand
said.

Councilman Paul Johnston expressed
displeasure Monday that the hospital boards could not agree, and that the
consulting firm that has helped manage the selection process, Skokie,
Ill.-based Kaufman Hall, has refused to provide a recommendation.

"We have been dealing
with this thing three or four weeks," Johnston said, calling the selection one
of the most important decisions the council members will make in their careers
as public servants. "How do you expect me to make a decision like that in such
a short amount of time?"